By Philip Stephens
The Financial Times

Published: October 22 2009 20:43 | Last updated: October 22 2009 20:43




Small incidents can illuminate a bigger picture. A couple of weeks ago, President Abdullah Gul of Turkey opened an exhibition of Ottoman treasures in Paris. The display is the centrepiece of an effort to promote Turkeys rich heritage. Mr Gul was joined by Nicolas Sarkozy. The French president arrived chewing a piece of gum.

I was told this story during a visit to Istanbul. Mr Sarkozys gum-chewing, I heard, served as a metaphor for Frances disdain for Turkeys European aspirations. The lack of respect set the tone for the two leaders working lunch at the Elysée Palace. The atmosphere was described as polite. We know what that means.

French officials will doubtless protest that the swaggering Mr Sarkozy had not intended any slight. The president of the French republic has never fully acquainted himself with diplomatic niceties. Yet the sensitivity of his guest was unsurprising. Mr Sarkozy has put himself in the vanguard of European leaders they include Germanys Angela Merkel who are viscerally opposed to Turkish accession to the European Union.

It is half a century since Turkey first knocked on Europes door with a bid to join the Common Market. There were plenty of detours on the way to the start of formal accession talks in 2004. Often, it must be said, the fault lay with Turkey. Military coups and political repression did not help make the case for membership of Europes democratic club.

That was then. Turkey is still a long way from meeting the democratic terms of EU membership, but few can doubt that it has taken big steps in the right direction. It is the fear that Turkey is within sight of doing what has been asked of it that has led Mr Sarkozy and others to repudiate the original bargain. Admitting Turkey, Mr Sarkozy says, would dilute the Union. What he really means is that Europe does not want 70-odd million Muslims.


video in the link: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/106a99e6-bf3d-11de-a696-00144feab49a.html


Unsurprisingly, Turkeys political classes have run short of patience. They are not interested in the privileged partnership offered as a substitute for EU membership. The government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the prime minister, has decided to look eastwards.

Turkey is establishing itself as a power-broker and a peace-maker in the Middle East. It is fixing troubled relationships with its neighbours. And it is finding the respect it receives in Arab capitals a lot more convivial than the snubs it is accustomed to in Europe.

Mr Erdogan set out the strategy at the inaugural meeting this week of the Istanbul Forum, hosted by Turkeys Centre for Strategic Communication, and supported by the German Marshall Fund of the United States. The government, said Mr Erdogan, would continue to pursue its European vocation. But it has no intention of behaving as a helpless supplicant. Turkey is instead assuming a role commensurate with its status as a fast-rising power at the strategic crossroads of east and west.

The strategy has been a big success. A few years ago, Turkey massed tens of thousands of troops on its border with Syria because of that countrys support for PKK Kurdish separatists. Now, detente has seen the two countries open the frontier to visa-free travel. There has been a rapprochement with the Iraqi government and an effort to reach an accommodation with the Kurdish minority. Trade and economic ties with Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states are growing rapidly. Turkey, one forum participant told me, knows where the money is.

In the Caucasus, the government has reached an agreement with Armenia that, with luck and effort, could end a century of mutual hostility. Relations with Russia are cordial and with Greece stable.

Ignoring anxieties in western capitals, Turkey has engaged with the Palestinian Hamas and with the Iranian-sponsored Hizbollah in Lebanon. Next week, Mr Erdogan is due in Tehran as Turkey assumes the role of broker between Iran and the west. Ask high-ranking Turkish officials as to the wisdom of some of these relationships and they refer to Barack Obama. Had he not proposed to replace a clenched fist with an outstretched hand? Turkey has to deal with the region as it is, one of Mr Erdogans advisers told me.

On the other side of the ledger, the Israeli invasion of Gaza has led to a rupture in the long-standing relationship with Israel. Mr Erdogan sees an Israeli-Palestinian settlement as the sine qua non of strategic stability in Turkeys back yard. But he has concluded that the Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu has no interest in a deal.

Not everyone is happy with the eastwards turn. Those who have long carried the European torch see the Islamist character of Mr Erdogans administration as a serious threat to the secular settlement bequeathed by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey. They worry that the prime minister and his ministers seem more comfortable with regional despots than with the democratic leaders of Europe: that the Muslim may trump the European identity.

The focus and energy devoted to building Turkeys influence in the Middle East, the critics say, has been at the expense of reforms to strengthen the democratic and secular character of the Turkish state. They point to curbs on free speech and the imposition of Muslim social mores. Mr Erdogans government stands accused of imposing a multi-billion-dollar fine on the Dogan group, the countrys leading media business, in a campaign to stifle opposition.

Disquiet is heard also among Turkeys partners in the Nato alliance. Making peace with old enemies is one thing Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, played a pivotal role in the deal with Armenia. But cuddling up to regional actors still committed to violence risks taking Turkey beyond a sensible good-neighbours policy.

This may be so. But the west is losing its leverage. US power is being challenged across the Middle East; and Europe seems intent on irrelevance. Mr Erdogans Turkey still wants to be part of Europe. And on every challenge from energy, from terrorism, drugs and migration to trade and investment Europe has an immutable interest in nurturing a democratic, west-facing Turkey. Its security is the wests security. But Mr Sarkozy and his like want nothing more than to hold on to the past. Turkey speaks to the world as it is becoming.

philip.stephens@ft.com
More columns at www.ft.com/philipstephens


Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/106a99e6-bf3d-11de-a696-00144feab49a.html



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"Freedom and independence is my character."
~M. Kemal Ataturk

" The French president arrived chewing a piece of gum. "


LOL. Turkos don't get no respect.

" The French president arrived chewing a piece of gum. "

LOL. Turkos don't get no respect.


Such behaviour belittles only himself.

If Sarkozy burps, farts, or uses swear words while making a speech, will these hideous acts belittle his guests, or belittle himself?

The FT sounds a lot like the Conservative Party in the UK.

The Conservatives in the UK are a "Trojan horse" in the EU. They don't really like the idea of not being able to run the EU and having to play second fiddle to the French and Germans, so they will do anything in their power to undermine the EU. They know very well that letting Turkey into the EU will fundamentally alter (I'd say most likely dissolve it as we know it) the European Union and that is why the Yanks and their British sidekicks are so pro-Europe.

@Barba

Why do Greeks dislike and never trust the English, they have been nothing but good to you Greeks in history and still you Greeks have animosity towards English.

Simple, an englishman can never be your friend. Never. I have good friends that are Turkish but none that are English. They simply cannot be trusted. Backstabbing for them is no problem. They simply lack any concept of honour from a personal level to the country level.

Whatever they've done for Greece was in their self interest, not because they actually cared for us.

"A couple of weeks ago, President Abdullah Gul of Turkey opened an exhibition of Ottoman treasures in Paris. The display is the centrepiece of an effort to promote Turkeys rich heritage."

How much you want to bet most of that "Ottoman treasure" was actually Byzantine?

The Ottomans destroyed and stole WAYYYYYYY more than they created. Does any Turk dispute this? Can any Turk dispute this?

You cant blame your invasion on Turkish soil failure on English, they supported you with everything except fighting the war for you so i dont see any backstabbing by English.

During ww2 again English freed Greece from Nazi occupation, still i cant see a backstabbing from English against Greece.

And during Cyprus conflict i cant see any evidence that English forced Greek Cypriots for a total take over over the island.


Where have they backstabbed the Greeks i honestly cant understand.

England didn't "free" Greece from the Nazis. It was a united effort against the Germans.

Churchill told his commanders to treat the Greek as "occupied" when they moved into Athens at the end of WW2. Some friends.


Everywhere the Brits went they cause trouble (Palestine, Iraq, India, Sri Lanka, Cyprus etc etc etc).

There policy is to cause trouble everywhere and benefit from it.

Very good article.

Turk Bir Dev

we are going to turn to east sooner or later... whats the big deal?

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The FT sounds a lot like the Conservative Party in the UK.

The Conservatives in the UK are a "Trojan horse" in the EU. They don't really like the idea of not being able to run the EU and having to play second fiddle to the French and Germans, so they will do anything in their power to undermine the EU. They know very well that letting Turkey into the EU will fundamentally alter (I'd say most likely dissolve it as we know it) the European Union and that is why the Yanks and their British sidekicks are so pro-Europe.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZUOkGxGUVs


precisely



----------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Freedom and independence is my character."
~M. Kemal Ataturk

Why do Greeks dislike and never trust the English, they have been nothing but good to you Greeks in history and still you Greeks have animosity towards English.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>


That's something I don't get at all. The most famous philhellenes in history, had always been the Brits, such as Lord Byron...


(he was a homosexual btw, thus loved the Greek culture)



However, too much one-sided love, can sometimes cause frustration on the other side..




Lord Elgin, another philhellene



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"Freedom and independence is my character."
~M. Kemal Ataturk

////Everywhere the Brits went they cause trouble (Palestine, Iraq, India, Sri Lanka, Cyprus etc etc etc).

There policy is to cause trouble everywhere and benefit from it.////

It is true that the British tactic of "divide and rule" is the root cause of ethnic/religious troubles in many countries even today which were once part of their empire